{"id":873213,"date":"2026-04-24T02:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873213\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T02:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:10:14","slug":"spencer-fano-selected-ninth-overall-in-nfl-draft-by-browns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873213\/","title":{"rendered":"Spencer Fano Selected Ninth Overall in NFL Draft by Browns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PITTSBURGH\u00a0\u2014 Former Utah offensive tackle <a href=\"https:\/\/utahutes.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/spencer-fano\/16579\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"16579\" target=\"_blank\">Spencer Fano<\/a> has been picked ninth overall in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nFano, the first offensive lineman taken in this year&#8217;s draft,\u00a0is the 11th Utah player selected in the first round. Fano\u00a0follows\u00a0tight end Dalton Kincaid (25th overall) to Buffalo in 2023 and is the 47th Utah offensive lineman to be taken. He is the highest selected Ute since Jordan Gross went eighth overall to Carolina in 2003.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nSPENCER FANO | OFFENSIVE TACKLE<br \/>\nHometown: Spanish Fork, Utah<br \/>\nHigh School: All-American four-star recruit out of Timpview High School<br \/>\nUtah Awards: Outland Trophy recipient (2025), Unanimous First Team All-American (2025); Polynesian College Football Player of the Year (2025); Big 12 Offensive Lineman of the Year (2025); Selected First Team All-Conference (2024-25); Freshman All-America (2023); Played 37 games as a Ute with 36 starts.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n2025:\u00a0Started at right tackle in all 12 regular season games.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\tPart of the unit named to the Joe Moore Award Midseason Honor Roll.&#13;<br \/>\n\tAllowed just five pressures and five hurries and did not allow a sack in 357 pass blocking opportunities, per PFF.&#13;<br \/>\n\tHelped Utah gain 587 yards of total offense against Colorado, including 422 rushing yards, the seventh-most in a single game in program history.&#13;<br \/>\n\tBlocked for an offense that put up 483 yards of total offense against Baylor, including 380 rushing yards and five scores on the ground.&#13;<br \/>\n\tHelped the Utes rush for 267 yards and pass for 213 yards while holding the ball for 40:02 in the 45-14 win over No. 17 Cincinnati.&#13;<br \/>\n\tHelped Utah rush for 276 yards on 6.6 yards per carry against No. 21 Arizona State, scoring six rushing touchdowns, tied for the fifth-most in a single game in program history; did not allow a sack against the Sun Devils.&#13;<br \/>\n\tBlocked for an offense that posted a season-high 541 yards of total offense at Wyoming (311 rushing, 230 passing).&#13;<br \/>\n\tBlocked for an offense that put up 532 yards of total offense (242 rushing, 290 passing) at West Virginia.&#13;<br \/>\n\tHelped Utah gain 492 yards against UCLA (286 rushing, 206 passing).&#13;<br \/>\n\tBlocked for an offense that put up 518 yards of total offense (273 rushing, 245 passing) against Cal Poly.&#13;<br \/>\n\tHelped Utah gain 470 yards of offense (244 passing, 226 rushing) at No. 15 BYU.&#13;<br \/>\n\tPart of the unit named Big 12 Offensive Line of the Week four times (Sept. 2, Oct. 13, Oct. 27, Nov. 17).&#13;<\/p>\n<p>2024:\u00a0Occupied the right tackle spot in the starting lineup in all 12 games.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\tAcademic All-Big 12 Team.&#13;<br \/>\n\tRumbled into the end zone for a two-point conversion against Colorado.&#13;<br \/>\n\tGarnered All-American recognition from PFF\u00a0(First Team), AP (Second Team) and\u00a0Walter Camp (Second Team).&#13;<br \/>\n\tEarned All-Big 12 First-Team (Coaches and AP) honors.&#13;<br \/>\n\tRecognized with a spot on the 2024 PFF Midseason All-America Team.&#13;<br \/>\n\tWas a finalist for the 2024\u00a0Polynesian College Football Player of the Year Award.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>2023:\u00a0Played in all 13 games, starting 12 (11 at LT, 1 at RT).<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\tCFN Freshman All-America first-team.&#13;<br \/>\n\tOne of two true freshmen to start at left tackle to begin the season.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>FOLLOW THE UTES<br \/>\nFollow the Utes on social media through\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Utah_Football\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/utahfootball\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UtahUtesFootball\/?fref=ts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@utah_football?lang=en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TikTok<\/a>\u00a0along with visiting\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.utahutes.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.UtahUtes.com<\/a>. Download the Utah 360 app\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/utah360.qrplanet.com\/o3ni9z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">here<\/a>.\u00a0<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH\u00a0\u2014 Former Utah offensive tackle Spencer Fano has been picked ninth overall in the first round of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7],"class_list":{"0":"post-873213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116457257269301440","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}